PIKES. 
225 
Dr. Mellerborg, that he had himself seen an enor- 
i mens Pike, with an Eagde fastened to his back, 
I lying dead on a piece of ground which had been 
overflowed^ but from which the water had then 
retreated. Captain Eurenius informed the same 
author that he was once an eye-witness of a simi- 
I lar circumstance. In this instance, when the 
Eagle first seized the Pike, he succeeded in lift- 
i ing him for a short distance into the air ; the 
' weight of the fish, however, combined with its 
1 struggles, soon carried both down again into the 
water, under which they disappeared. Presently 
1 the Eagle was seen at the surface, uttering pierc- 
ing cries, and apparently making great efforts to 
extricate its talons ; all however were in vain, for 
after a long continued struggling he finally dis- 
appeared in the depths of the river. ^ 
In the Swedish rivers the gums of the Pike are 
said to be periodically subject to a disorder by 
which they become of so spongy a texture, and 
so much swollen, that the teeth which are then 
partially concealed from view, seem scarcely able 
to perform their function. This change is said 
always to take place about the time of new moon. 
The Wermeland fishermen assert that while his 
gums are in this diseased state, the Pike is almost 
incapable of devouring his prey, and therefore, at 
the time mentioned, they hardly take the trouble 
of laying out their lines ; and these simple people 
assign as the reason for this periodical impotency, 
that if his teeth were always in good order the 
Pike would soon eat up all other fishes.f 
The size, strength, agility, and ferocity of the 
* Field Sports of the North of Europe, i. 216. 
4 Field Sports, &c. i. 216. 
Q 
